For a number of years, at least since government safety regulations for the automobile industry has provided an incentive, automobile manufacturers have used running lights on the sides of passenger vehicles as an added measure of safety for the vehicles when driven at night. These lights, conventionally energized by the battery generated electrical systems of the vehicles, are usually switched on and off with the ignition system and front and rear lights.
There are a number of disadvantages associated with the inclusion of side running lights in the front and rear light systems, that is, head and tail light systems, and with the inclusion of the ignition system of an automobile. As one, the running lights do not come on when the electrical system of the car fails, so that, if at night the car is coasting--for example, if it is being pushed or is moving down an incline--the running lights are not available as a safety measure. As another, the vehicle owner is often left to the whim of the automobile manufacturer as it concerns the amount of light made available by side running lights because of the inconvenience of tying additional lights into the electrical system of the vehicle.
Both of these disadvantages can be overcome by a lighting apparatus for a vehicle that can be conveniently put onto the vehicle in a position at which it can provide side running lights. A lighted hubcap would, to an extent, fit the following parameters: it would be positioned on the side of the vehicle, and it would be placable with little inconvenience if proper consideration were given to developing an independent power source for the lights.
Conventional technology would not serve to provide, however, a wholly convenient independent power source for the lights. Lights that are battery operated, for example by small cell power sources, would be independent, but would have other inconveniences, as requiring multiple switches or that the lights of all of the hubcaps be tied together in a single circuit so that the lights could be controlled by a single switch and as requiring that the batteries or cells be replaced frequently.
A solution to providing an independent power source to lights for a wheel element lies outside of the art. U.S. Pat. No. 4,298,910 issued to Price on Nov. 3, 1981, teaches using a self-contained generator that has a permanent magnet assembly secured in flux coupling relationship with electrically conducting windings to provide electricity for energizing light emitting diodes. While the teachings of Price provide some background from which the present invention has been conceived, the teachings are devoid of suggesting a means for forming a flux coupling relationship between the magnet and windings in a unit body that can be snapped onto a rotatable wheel as a hubcap is snapped onto a wheel of a passenger vehicle.